Innovating with the Fair Cooling Fund

Without means to cool homes, food, medicine, and cities, those in the ever-warming Global South become increasingly at risk.

From 2020 to 2022, Ashden’s Fair Cooling Fund brought sustainable cooling to communities. The fund helped seven trailblazing organisations deliver affordable products and services – from milk chilling co-operatives for dairy farmers, to low-carbon cooling for cramped homes facing deadly heatwaves. It also helped these organisations grow and unlock further investment from other sources.

The fund included grants to develop new cooling solutions and brought the organisations together, to learn and overcome common challenges. Those taking part had all been winners or finalists in the Ashden Awards – which bring publicity, grants, and connections to groundbreaking climate solutions – guaranteeing their commitment to innovation and inclusivity. The Fair Cooling Fund leveraged an additional $6m of investment and funding into the seven organisations. At the project’s end, 420,000 people were set to gain access to sustainable cooling because of the initiative.

Those taking part included India’s Ecozen – whose solar-powered cold storage units help farmers make a better living. Co-founder and CEO, Devendra Gupta, said: “Support from Ashden’s Fair Cooling Fund was crucial to Ecozen –it allowed our business to withstand the impact of coronavirus, and to develop a new product bringing sustainable cooling to low-income farmers. Ashden’s backing helped us grow, innovate and eventually secure a $25m investment in January 2023.”

As well as solutions providing cooler homes and fresher food, the cohort featured Medellin’s Green Corridors scheme. The initiative, another Ashden Award winner, used the natural power of vegetation to dramatically lower temperatures on the streets of the Colombian city. The scheme saw 880,000 trees and 2.5m smaller plants planted across the city, instigating a 2 degrees temperature reduction. It garnered international coverage, with Martina Otto, Head of Cities Unit at UN Environment, declaring that it shows “how we can mitigate and adapt to climate change thanks to nature-based solutions”.